If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Secondary IDE plug.. ??

I just put my computer back together (VIA-503+ / K6-2 300 ), and my mom found an old perfectly good 1.2 Gig HD laying around. Wanting to turn this thing into an MP3 depository, I eagerly put it into my case. Problem: My main IDE cable doesn't have any more plugs on it, but we had an extra IDE cable. When I put my comp. back together, I put the HD/CD cable into the plug marked "Primary". Could I hook the 2nd HD up to the IDE plug marked "secondary"? I've done some reading and every article that describes adding a second HD says to daisy-chain it with the master drive. What's wrong with using the Secondary slot? Is this for dual-booting or something? Thanks!

Primary and secondary IDE plugs are virtually the same. Each plug can support 2 IDE devices, such as CDROMS, Hard Disks, Zip Drives, whatever you like. The two plugs are called Master and Slave. So basically you have 4 plugs:

You can run the second HD absolutely anywhere you want, without any problems. The only reason they suggest running it with the other hd is that sometimes it can be faster, but it will work perfectly fine on the secondary, ie:

One thing to watch for, sometimes HD and CDROMs have jumpers on them, in order to select whether theyre master or slave. If you put the second HD on your secondary, it can be run as either secondary master or slave, but master is probably better.

Drop me an email if you need more help.

"In the computer industry, there are three kinds of lies;
lies, damn lies, and benchmarks."